THE PEOPLE DID NOT PROVE THE ALLEGED ACTS OF SEXUAL MISCONDUCT OCCURRED AT LEAST 24 HOURS APART; THEREFORE THE PEOPLE DID NOT PRESENT PROOF SUPPORTING A 20 POINT ASSESSMENT FOR A “CONTINUOUS COURSE OF SEXUAL MISCONDUCT:” LEVEL THREE REDUCED TO LEVEL TWO (FOURTH DEPT).
The Fourth Department, reducing the defendant’s risk level from three to two, determined the People did not prove defendant engaged in a “continuous course of sexual misconduct” which requires that the acts be at least 24 hours apart:
The court erred … in assessing 20 points under risk factor 4 for having engaged in a continuous course of sexual misconduct. Points may be assessed under risk factor 4 if, as relevant here, the People establish by clear and convincing evidence that defendant engaged in “two or more acts of sexual contact, at least one of which is an act of sexual intercourse, oral sexual conduct, anal sexual conduct, or aggravated sexual contact, which acts are separated in time by at least 24 hours” … . Here, “[a]lthough the People presented evidence that defendant engaged in acts of sexual contact with the victim on more than one occasion, they failed to establish ‘when these acts occurred relative to each other’ ” … , and thus failed “to demonstrate that such instances were separated in time by at least 24 hours” … . People v Ellis, 2022 NY Slip Op 02654, Fourth Dept 4-22-22
Practice Point: A 20-point SORA assessment for a continuous course of sexual misconduct requires proof the acts took place at least 24 hours apart. Here there was no proof of when the acts occurred relative to each other, therefore the 20-point assessment was struck.